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| Wendy Dillingham-Plew of Los Gatos talks with Sen. Abel Maldonado |
Chapter leaders descended on the state Capitol en masse for CTA Lobby Day on May 20 in an effort to protect public schools from having to suffer devastating cuts in the next school year.
Participants let legislators know how budget cuts would negatively impact schools — and also gave CTA officers David A. Sanchez, Dean Vogel and Dan Vaughn a grand welcome as they pulled into town for the last stop of the six-week, multicity “Cuts Hurt” bus tour.
While teacher constituents visited as many legislators as possible, most of the pressure was focused on Republican leaders, who were asked to pass a budget offering more than a “cuts-only” approach to education funding for public schools and colleges in the state.
“We really don’t want to see cuts as the only avenue to balance the budget,” said Fountain Valley Education Association President Cheryl Loukides to Assembly Member Jim Silva (R-Huntington Beach). “In my district, temporary teachers have been let go, and now program cuts are being looked at because the district is ‘prioritizing.’ It is unfair to have the budget balanced on the backs of our students.”
“We are here to promote public education and a responsible budget that fully funds public education,” added Sean Fortner, a member of the Huntington Beach Unified High School District Education Association. He called the decision not to suspend Proposition 98, the state’s minimum school funding law, a “step in the right direction,” but pointed out that the governor’s revised budget still cuts $4.3 billion from public education and increases fees for college students.
Lynette Nyaggah, a linguistics instructor at Rio Hondo College and vice president of the Community College Association, told Silva that at the community college level “armies of part-timers” have lost their jobs, which will result in fewer class offerings and more crowded classrooms. The governor’s budget proposal only provides $69 million to fill the property tax shortfall of $92 million for community colleges, which often enroll low-income students whose parents may not have attended college — or even graduated from high school.
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| Ann Codd, Scotts Valley |
“Community colleges are where these students find opportunity, so these cuts are absolutely tragic for all of us,” said Nyaggah.
In the office of Assembly Member Paul Cook (R-Yucaipa), Jody Sanchez, vice president of the Menifee Teachers Association, said that school districts in her area are already hurting. The Hemet Unified School District, for example, eliminated elementary school counselors and bus transportation to elementary school students. “The parents are really facing hardships because of this,” said Sanchez.
She added that class sizes are also being increased throughout her region, and that larger classes threaten academic progress. “We want to keep small classes so we can offer interventions to children who are struggling.”
Inside the office of Assembly Member Mike Duvall (R-Brea), a contingent of Orange County teachers lamented that the revised budget offers no cost-of-living adjustment to any education program, which means less money to recruit and retain quality teachers.
Eric Padget, president of the Garden Grove Education Association, told Duvall that cuts to categorical programs would be devastating to schools, especially Title I sites that serve students from low-income families.
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| Eric Padget, Garden Grove, Danette Brown, La Habra, Kristen Fisher, Anaheim, and Jim Rogers. |
“Categorical funds help students above and beyond the general fund, and when you cut those funds they will have to be made up out of the general fund,” said Padget. “So, in essence, when you cut categorical funds you are also reducing the general fund as the cost of doing business goes up.”
Debbie Lipner, a special education teacher and incoming president of the Guadalupe Teachers Association, informed Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) that small school districts have been greatly impacted by the revised budget proposal. In her “two-school town,” for example, seven out of 63 teachers received pink slips. The band teacher’s position is now funded entirely by donations, she said, and so many positions of classroom aides have been eliminated “there are almost no instructional assistants.”
Maldonado emphasized that he did not come to Sacramento to cut education and that he has voted against cuts to education. He even went so far as to say that tax cuts might just be a possible long-term solution to the budget crisis.
“Taxes should be on the table,” he said, noting that a sales tax could go into effect if the governor’s proposal to privatize the state lottery is turned down by voters.
“The lottery proposal is a shell game,” replied Lipner, pointing out that it relies on more state borrowing — and caps education funding from the lottery at its current fixed amount. This means public schools would get no more than $1.2 billion despite enrollment increases or increased lottery revenues. In fact, the state’s legislative analyst warns that public education funding “would fall well short of current levels” and could lose $5 billion over the next 12 years under the lottery plan.
It is imperative that California find a stable and permanent source of funding for public education, KC Walsh, president of the Oak Grove Educators Association, told Maldonado.
“None of us went into education to be politicians,” she asserted. “And it’s very demoralizing for us to fight hard for a dependable, permanent source of funding year after year. Lawmakers must consider revenue increases, and we look forward to working with the Legislature and the governor to pass a state budget that invests in the future of our children, our schools and our state.”
Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
